Mexico's Fast Electric Growth Needs Investors

Mexico’s electric grid, long inadequate for a growing nation, now is surging 3.7 percent a year – and will continue to do so for 15 years, said a top government official.

Guillermo Zúñiga, commissioner of Mexico’s Energy Regulatory Commission, said that market reforms have thrown open his nation of 125 million to major electric grid development.

“The challenge is to show the world,” Zuniga told the Energy Times’ Renewables Rush conference in San Francisco. “The new framework is for the long haul. There is demand for energy. The challenge is how to attract investment.”

Zúñiga said that his nation has scoured the world to learn the best paths forward for clean, reliable and affordable electric power – and it believes it has much to learn from changes now underway in California’s electricity business.

At the same time, California is now suffering from periods of renewable energy oversupply that can best be alleviated by creating expanded transmission connections between the state and Mexico, Zúñiga said.